I don't know, but I know that "manny" teams their website just suck.. not their development, but just their website.. so don't be suprised... even a lot of teams without any website or online news are getting very close to go up for an xprize attempt.

If it weren't for the funding, I'd write off DaVinci altogether. I assume that with $5 mill in funding, they have to have SOMETHING going. But launching from a balloon?! Sure it gets you closer to outer space, but it would have to seriously limit your payload... And if the next step is ORBITAL flight, then this method would make it that much harder.

For my money, the big bucks backed Space Ship 1 is my bet. They have actually had successful flights, and made it to Mach 2! My back of the envelope calculations show that if they turned nearly veritical at that speed, and cut the engines, that they would have coasted up an additional forty miles. This puts them close to the edge of space already.

Considering they have already been nearly vertical at Mach 1, that wind resistance should be relatively negligible, that they do NOT have to turn off the engine while they are climbing, and that they may have exceeded Mach 2 (Mach 2.1 or so), then I think they are already capable of hitting space.

This versus a machine that is still on the dawing board as far as I know. Hate to be a prophet of doom, but it looks like global domination isn't enough for Microsoft

Da Vinci's idea is sound. Rockoons have been tested since the fifties. Take a look at what JP Aerospace has been able to do with this type of launch. A first stage as a balloon should work very well for both microsat launches and manned suborbital. Da Vinci might very well be the dark horse entry of the X-Prize.

..they may not be the underdog to beat all underdogs, but i believe in them .. i suggest any naysayers scan thru the competition (all the teams - perhaps several times) to judge who really has a chance of competing against Scaled .. Sure, Scaled will probably win the Prize, but who will do it cheaper and more reliably? My money is on da Vinci. They're the only team that asks for donations and volunteers up front. They have an underdog backer (Sun). So what their concept is not the sexiest concept in the universe .. Sure, Scaled is sexy, but that doesn't make it cheap and reliable .. If they've gone thru many designs (da Vinci), that's because they're dynamic and adaptable. Only an idiot sticks with a design just because it's cool or sexy .. da Vinci rocks in many ways .. i suggest those who complain or dismiss them - to look deeper into their efforts - to find perhaps something interesting and surprising Did anyone consider the possibility that bad press about some bogus launch might have been generated by the competition - to make da Vinci look bad? Look deeper into an issue and frequently find the truth floating to the surface

Are you suggesting that Rutan has stuck with SS1's design because it's cool? I'd counter that he's stuck with that design because it WORKS! That's a hell of a lot more than our cardboard mock-up entrants in the North have achieved.

I guess now that it's been five days since an announcement was supposed to be made, we can probably write Da Vinci off.

Geez, if it wasn't for SS1 I don't know if X-Prize would have any credibility at all. Sure, Armadillo is making steps (and others), but given the pace of development of these teams, I doubt they'll launch this year let alone this summer.

I wouldn't mind if Da Vinci came out and said, "We've had some delays and can't confirm a launch date yet." However not making an announcement about why they didn't make their launch announcement is just unprofessional.

I need another underdog to support, shouldn't be a problem, there seems to be a lot of them in the x-prize.

Sure, Armadillo is making steps (and others), but given the pace of development of these teams, I doubt they'll launch this year let alone this summer.

Considering the recent hover tests over at Armadillo they probaby could launch within a week if they really wanted to. Although there's a very good chance they'd probably lose the vehicle if they did. By the look of things I think they'll be able to come close to matching the DC-X flights by the summer. I've gotten the impression that they've already written off the current vehicle in their minds and fully expect to crash it during testing. They seem to also have several things going on in parallel with a set of eight large engines and an extra tank for their follow up verticle landing capable larger vehicle, which wouldn't surprise me if they could have that assembled in a month or so if they dropped everything else. They got quite a nasty set back with their fuel problems but I think with that now cleared up and all of their previous work they'll definitely make their own X-prize launches before the end of the year. Especially since to my knowledge they're the only other US based team that has started to seriously wade through the paper work to get a launch license.

Although I don't really follow DaVinci I wouldn't be too quick to write them off. With Scaled composites in the apparent lead I would be furiously working my tail off trying to catch up if I were them and web site updates would be a very low priority. In fact at this point it might be a good strategy for a team like DaVinci to ignore their own web site and hold off posting any real news until they make their 60 notification for the X-prize.